Family, friends, and even some public officials are demanding answers - after what they claim was a half-hearted search effort for a woman with dementia.

The 70-year old was reported missing by her family on the evening of Monday, March 16th. Her body was discovered the next morning, dead from exposure and hypothermia.

NewsChannel 7 received numerous complaints that the Price County Sheriff didn't seem to take the complaint or the search seriously - so we agreed to take a closer look.

When Deanne Brien didn't return home from a routine walk in the woods with her two dogs, her husband George knew something was wrong. Worried that her dementia may have caused her to get lost - he called the Price County Sheriff's department for help.

For the next 16 hours, the Price County Sheriff lead the search effort for Deanne - but that effort fell tragically short. The 70-year old woman was found dead in the woods later the next morning, her two dogs still at her side.

As Deanne's family grieves, some complain sheriff Wallace Krenzke mishandled the situation by failing to use all the resources available to help find her.

Jeff Peterson, a neighbor of the Briens’, first heard a woman was missing on his police scanner. "The first thing that popped into my head was, 'George's wife', he says. Just minutes later, Jeff says he heard a woman in the woods screaming for help. "I could hear ‘help me’ coming from this direction. I went in the house right away and I called the Sheriff's Department and told them, ‘I can hear the lady screaming, she's straight south from my house.’"

Peterson says the next two hours were agonizing. He and his wife stood outside, listening to the woman's cries for help, with a deputy who encouraged them to stay put. "I was ready to go and they told me I couldn’t go in the woods, that I had to stay home."

According to department records, 4 deputies searched the area, on and off, for the next few hours. Shortly before 11pm, one of them also reported hearing a woman's cries. An ambulance was dispatched to the area, but still, Deanne wasn't found.

Records show help from outside agencies was never requested. In fact, offers from at least two outside agencies, the Iron County Sheriff's Department and Park Falls Fire Department, were turned down by Sheriff Krenzke.

But outside assistance was never requested that night, and Sheriff Krenzke called off the search at 3 in the morning. The woman's cries for help had silenced just hours earlier - before 11pm.

Sheriff Krenzke confirms no more than 6 deputies were responding at any one time. He says he had his reasons for not calling in - or accepting - extra help with the search. “At that particular time, there were other mitigating circumstances which I prefer not to go into”, he says. “I think you'll find that in the reports of the department, and you, of course can read and release what information you choose to."

According to those reports, and a statement released by Krenzke, he had decided that adding people to the search party could scare Deanne further into the woods. "My concerns were that if we brought more people in, the individual would flee across the river, break through the ice and drown”, he said. “My concerns were for her.”

When asked why a woman who is missing and freezing would run, he said because of HIPPA laws, he wouldn’t discuss it.

According to deputies' reports and Deanne’s husband, she suffered from dementia. But friends say the fact she was calling for help should have been a sign she wouldn’t hide from searchers.

But Sheriff Krenzke says it wasn’t clear to him that she was calling for help. “Well there's some confusion as to whether it was the words ‘help’, or if it was just hollering”, he says.

Peterson disagrees. “It was help me”, he said. “It was crystal clear. My wife, my kids, and myself all stood out there for 2 and a half hours and listened to her."

Deanne's friends say holding back on the search was the wrong decision, especially since she was freezing to death and calling out. They say they don’t believe she would run or hide from searchers.

Kreznke says he was also fearful that he could be putting additional searchers in danger - since one of Deanne’s dogs was part Rottweiler, and there could be coyotes in the woods. When asked if he believed Deanne’s life was in more immediate danger than searchers that could be threatened by a dog or coyotes, he said, “well I think her situation was, I didn't want to push her on the river to break through and drown."

Krenzke says that’s the same reason he told his deputies to stop searching the woods at about 3am. “Well, we weren't getting any response. And the darkness,” he said. “I felt that if we put more people in there, that we would chase the individual across the river and she would break through the ice and drown."

Many of Deanne’s neighbors had no idea she was missing until it was too late. Her body was discovered just a mile south of Peterson’s home, in the area he had described to deputies.

Neighbors say the tragedy was preventable. “Oh yes”, said Peterson. “If they could have gotten the EMTs or fire department or search and rescue out here at 7:50 when I called, I’m sure it would have been a different outcome."

“We could have fanned out following the river, 20 feet apart from each other, and we could have found her”, said Tony Kovarik. “Especially if you hear the person yelling for help."

“I just cant get it through my head that they would hear her call and not come out and send people out to look”, said Bertha Herbst, another neighbor.

But Sheriff Krenzke believes the situation was handled the best it could be. When asked if he could do anything differently; if he could do it all over, he replied, “Not that I can see."

Price County's Emergency Management Director, Jeff Hein, recently wrote a letter to the local newspaper, the Phillips Bee. He calls the search for Deanne Brien an “utter failure”, and blames the Sheriff's errors in judgment for her death.

He has been openly critical of what he sees as the Sheriff's ongoing refusal to offer or accept help from other agencies in regards to this and other situations in the past. His letter, the Sheriff’s response to criticism, and Sheriff’s Department Reports can be found linked to above.